Sunny Cedars

This may not be exciting to you, but it is to me: the sun is shining on our trees! I'm not much of a photographer, but was inspired and had to give it a try.

Look at the color of the sky! I had almost forgotten there was blue up there above the gray.

Only forty-eight days 'til spring!

Meeting Spencer

We have another new little nephew and we got to go meet him for the first time this last weekend. Here he is...Spencer Bradley Posenjak.

Toby's in heaven holding a one-week-old baby.

The happy grandparents. With the arrival of Spencer, my parents now have seven grandchildren: five boys and two girls.


Here's my sister, Gail, with three of her nieces and nephews. How great to have her home for awhile - especially great that she could be here to meet Spencer when he was first born.

Profiles

Thought I'd let you know the boys and I filled out our profile information in case you want to know some things about us. Maybe Toby will do his soon. Emma wanted to tell all her favorite things, too, but she's not on here as a contributor so I'll just write them in this post. I guess we don't watch many little girl movies. :)

Emma's Favorite Movies:
Harry Potter, The Silver Chair, Star Wars

Emma's Favorite Books:
Beowulf, Farmer Duck, Harold and the Purple Crayon, If you Give a Pig a Pancake, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, Double Trouble in Walla Walla, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Emma's Favorite Music:
Hallelujah (this is What Can I do but Praise You), Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door (but she sings it “Kevin’s door”)

Emma's Interests:
Drawing, Listening to stories, My dad, My mom, Jake, Ryan, Jessie

Happy Birthday, Jessie!!!

We love you!!!

Curls

In one of Emma's Little House on the Prarie Picture books, it tells about Ma tying Laura and Mary's hair in rags for the night so that it would be curly for their trip to town the next day. Emma and I decided we'd try it on her hair so last night we rolled her hair up in rags.

I wondered why people ever switched to curlers since it seems rags would be much more comfortable to sleep on...we found out this morning when we took the rags off. Jake said, "Wow, Emma, you look fluffy!"

I think she looks pretty cute, though. It's tamer, now, with a hairclip at the top.

Carol and Emma: a couple of girly girls...we're trying, anyway.

We are having so much fun!!!

Snow storms are way better than wind storms!

Yeah, the stuff that falls during snow storms cleans itself up!

A snowman is waiting to welcome Toby home from work...

...and so are the boys.

Joining In

Toby got me all set up and showed me how to write something here so I'm trying it out. I'm slow with these things - in fact, if I wasn't married to Toby, I might not have a computer at all. Don't get me wrong, I love my computer - I can't imagine life and especially homeschooling without it - Toby's just had to drag me, nearly kicking and screaming, into the world of computers. I will admit, though, that I'm glad. I've not had to be dragged into the blog idea - I like it - have really enjoyed Brad and Lindsey's - just expect me to be slow getting going.

I'm afraid my first post has to begin with a moment of silence for the Seahawks' 2006 season, which ended just a couple hours ago. (Pause here for that moment of silence). It was so good of them to give us two really great post-season games to hold us over until August. The game, this morning, started at the same time church started but our pastors, both loyal fans, made a point of ending on time ( a minute early, even) and set things up so we could stay and watch the second half. They do take good care of their flock.

Signing off from my first post. I think your job, now, is to leave really nice comments that will encourage me to keep posting. :)

Carol

Appeased

2 1/4 Inches last night. A good solid amount, and Carol says I should not complain. My friend Doug had 8 inches just south of us in Sammamish. Oh well. It's supposed to be in the teens tonight, so maybe i'll try to make a hockey rink or something.

Snow

Calvin: "It snowed last night! Turn on the radio! Maybe they closed school. Maybe the school buses froze up! Maybe the principal can't get out of his driveway!" Calvin's Mom: "Get dressed, Calvin. It only snowed an inch." Calvin: "Getting an inch of snow is like winning 10 cents in the lottery."


Alright, this is it. A decent chance for "measurable" snow, starting tonight. The last two snow events in Seattle have almost completely passed us by, while areas less than 5 miles away had 3-4 inches. I was watching the radar loops, and there was a 1 acre dry spot directly over our house, while everyone else was getting snow. Mom and Dad had a foot in Friday Harbor!

We're well inland, well above sea level, practically in the Cascades if you ask me. Ryan says there is not a single time that the "Weather News" has been right, so even he is getting cynical.

But tonight could change all that, with lots of moisture, then real cold weather for the rest of the week. Whatever comes down should stick, and then stay around. Here's hoping.

By the way, there is a great online gallery of Calvin and Hobbes snow comics here:

http://www.chase3000.com/userpages/calvinhobbes/

1975

Since Carol and I were both born in 1975 (She on the first of January, and I on the 8th); I thought some facts from that year would be fun to post.

I made a CD with some popular songs from that year, including:
Fire - Ohio Players
Fame - David Bowie
Rhinestone Cowboy - Glenn Campbell
S.O.S. - Abba
Thank God I'm a Country Boy - John Denver

The top two movies of 1975 were Jaws and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Production began of the first Star Wars movie as well.

Ford was presedent, and it was the year of the Watergate scandal.

In technology terms, the Altair 8800 is released, sparking the era of the microcomputer, and in a letter from Bill Gates to Paul Allen, the name "Micro-soft" is used for the first time.

Tiger Woods was born in 75, along with Matt Hasselbeck, Tiki Barber, Drew Barrymore, Jack White, Floyd Landis, Juan Pablo Montoya, and others ;-)

Finally, as indicated by this Ford advertisement, 1975 was certainly NOT the best year of the Mustang!

What a game!

Probably not the best to follow a "too much football?" post, but that was quite a game!

Too Much Football?

A sure sign of Mom, then Dad, then all the kids being true Seahawks fans is Jake, running through the house shouting (in a deep 'commercial-like' voice); "Fox NFL Sunday, sponsored by Visa! Life takes Visa!"

Rockin' Emma

Ryan and Jake were given MP3 headphones for Christmas, and Mimi later sent Emma her own set. If that is not a look of pride, I don't know what is.

Stuck

After clearing all of the stumps yesterday, I told the boys we should put the truck in "four-low" and drive through the mud. Brilliant.

We had a couple fun passes and then got stuck. Very stuck. "Four-low" wouldn't do it. The van was no help. A neighbor's four wheel drive SUV wasn't either.

So, I spent New Year's Day digging in an area that I was done digging in, and putting trees BACK in the ground (go figure) under the truck tires, and then was able to get out.

Oh well.

Happy Birthday to Carol

Happy Birthday to Carol, and Happy New Year everyone!